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10 people file complaint against NGO head

TNN | Updated: Jul 30, 2019, 12:36 IST

COIMBATORE: As many as 10 people on Monday filed a complaint with the city police commissioner against the founder of a non-governmental organization, who allegedly collected lakhs of rupees from them by promising to get flats in the housing units of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB). Sadhik Basha, a resident of Kuniyamuthur, said that a friend had introduced him to Benjamin Murugesan, founder of NGO Annai Terasa Arakattalai, two-and-a-half years ago when he was looking for a plot to purchase. “After showing me a flat in TNSCB’s housing unit in Kovaipudur, Murugesan said it would cost Rs 1.20lakh and asked me to give him another Rs 1lakh to felicitate. Believing his words, I pledged my wife’s jewellery and gave him Rs 2.10lakh. I came to know about the fraud after some time. Upon questioning, he agreed to return the amount. But he returned only Rs 1lakh,” Basha said. The victims are spread across the city, said B Madhumadi, another victim. “Murugesan targeted only those, who are living in rented houses and were planning to purchase a house. My husband Balakrishnan, an auto driver, is the sole breadwinner of the family. Murugesan showed us flats in TNSCB housing units in Keeranatham as well as in Kovaipudur. He told us that if we fail to get the house, we would return the money. I trusted him because he was a member of a trust, which was supposed to help the underprivileged. I had given him Rs 30,000 five years ago. I thought that after moving to our own house, I will be able to save the rent amount and use it for my daughters’ education,” she said.

“I have been visiting his office in Gopalpuram every month to enquire about the house. I came to know about his true nature about a week ago,” she added. Deputy commissioner (law & order) Balaji Saravanan assured to investigate the issue.